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The Who Dunnit?
M.O. "So...discussing what we have so far..." Mintaka frowned. "We have mysterious deaths in broad daylight, and yet no one knows how it's happening, a mysterious woman who recruited Sam....and two even more mysterious suspects, one of which is obviously insane but I can't tell which by this point." Mina placed a hand on her head. "Anyone wanna pitch an idea here, I for one am at a loss." Kisara scratched her head. "What I want to know is...what the hell just happened, because I am at a loss for words. The ninja turned evil and then we had some fabulous chick with chicken wings chase her off. ...Yep. That cements it, I'm a freak magnet." "...At least we know what that white-haired guy was talking about." Marin forgot that the 'white-haired guy' was Mina's father; somehow, she managed it. "...Now what do we do? Should we go find the blonde one and she'll lead her to the black haired one?" Always terrible with names, Marin was. "...but how do we get to them..." "That's the problem." Mina frowned, resting her head on Marin's shoulders. "Finding them. They don't use reiatsu, so I can't feel for it. In fact, what Mina found was more like yōki, but I'm not so attuned to sensing that. And even if Mina is, the question is getting to them. We could use my shadows, but, the Nue girl, she controls shadows. If she senses it, and redirects us..." Her face was grim. "We could wind up anywhere." "What about the flame girl?" Sam suggested. "Same problem." Mina shot this down instantly. "She's tailing the Nue girl. If the Nue senses us close, it might redirect my shadows..." Kisara sighed. "Why do I feel like this is going to be yet another wild goose chase...We have the habit of going those. A damn lot." Slumping her shoulders, she had no choice but to go along with the others. "You know...we can always track her demon energy. I can do that. But I don't know if they can mask it, or replace it with nothing; since otherwise, they're just humans. This is hard..." Marin tapped her head, trying to think in that hollow head of hers. "Why does this have to be so damn hard..." She slammed her fist against the wall- unsurprisingly, she had managed to hurt her own hand. "...Alright, let's gather what we have so far. Symbiotes formed from demons who possess people...they can control the people or give them powers; they can change at any time...No, this isn't the government. But where do we go from here?" "Let's forget the person who recruited me for a minute." Sam handwaved that away. "That Nue chick, I think her actual name is Takami, if I heard it right. /She's crazy/, obviously, but she seemed to be a fairly nice person before she suddenly went all psycho-avenger on us." "What's your point?" Mina urged her on, her head still on Marin's soft shoulder. "Well, the Karen girl seemed to be the same, right? But she was fairly normal. Heck, she seemed to be talking to...something we couldn't see. So, if she's another symbiote, what if her's is more benevolent?" Sam finished on a dramatic note. "...What if there's more benevlolent symbiotes? Then we need to enlist the help of that Karen girl...or find more good ones to track down the darkness one." Good point right there. Marin felt like slapping her right then and there. "I doubt there's many helpful demons. Look at the Nue. She went from placid to insane at the drop of a hat." "There's the..." Suddenly a sound buzzed throughout the house. An echoing sound, but strangely muffled. It sounded like.... "Singing?" Sam was confused. "What the hell?" "OH!" Mina reached into her bra, pulling out her cell phone and the singing intensified. "What the hell is that noise?" Sam questioned. Mina grinned, sitting up. "It's Marin singing while we were in the shower. I recorded it for my ringtone." Marin stomped on Mina's foot. "...When did you record that!?" Her eyes turned red as she tried to snatch the phone straight out of her hands. "Give it to me this instant!!!!" "Not a chance, it's your sweet voice, why wouldn't I want to hear it all the time?" Mina pressed the phone to her ear. "Hello Dad. What? Alright, we'll be right there!" "What's the problem?" Sam's eyes narrowed. "Something up?" "Dad says there's been a new development in the case we need to be informed about." Mina stood up, pocketing her phone. "Guess we have to head back. Hatoko will be thrilled." The Pied Piper "Onē-chan!" Hatoko smiled like the sun, brightly grinning at her older sister. "You're back already!" She hugged her sister, and, just to be nice, hugged Marin as well. "D-don't get the wrong idea. You're just so obsessive I took initiative." Wait, when was she tsundere? Marin was embarrased by her affection. The tsundere was being tsundere to the tsundere. "..Wha? Is this a dream or something?" "Hatoko, you got real big, didn't you?" Sam grinned at the younger girl. "Lookin' a lot like Mina already." Hatoko smile. "Thanks Sam. You also got big." Her eyes drifted up towards Sam's chest, and the older girl chuckled. The young Quincy led them back to Saiph's study, and the man looked up, his glasses flashing. "You certainly have good timing." The white-haired man concluded. "Oh, hello Sam, nice to see you again. How long has it been?" "A few years by now, Saiph." Sam nodded. It was rather noticeable she used his first name with no honorific at all, but whether this was due to her upbringing or a distaste for the man remained to be seen. He gestured them to seats, which they took, as Mina decided to not beat around the bush this time. "What happened this time?" "Something I didn't expect, actually." Saiph held up a few papers, casting them a glance. "We've been getting reports now of kidnapping. Children, specifically." Marin gnashed her teeth together- hurting children was one of the gravest sins of mankind. "Wait, really!? I won't stand for it. Small children being kidnapped; I won't allow it to happen! Do you have any leads- I'm going to take them down myself god-darn-it!" "And yet if you do in with that kind of attitude, we'll all be attending a funeral." Saiph was blunt. "The primary concern is not that children are being kidnapped, but more of "why"." "What-!" Mina was about to rise from her seat. Children were a touchy subject with both her and Marin, after all, they wanted one. Saiph silenced her by raising a hand. "Kidnappings happen every day. In fact, I can guarantee one is happening right now, far removed from your eyes and knowledge, be it here in Japan, or maybe over in America, or Israel. It's simply how it works. And as such, the question is why are these people going after the children." Kisara cracked her neck. "What really matters is that why this hasn't been stopped yet. We need to figure out how to stop it. It doesn't matter why it's happening, what matters is that it'll continue, and as long as it does, the world will get worse and worse. We need to think clearly on this one; no funny stuff." The light-pink haired girl was serious as usual. "Tell me what you know so far." Saiph suggested, intertwining his own fingers and resting his chin on them. Whether or not he knew this was a more malicious gesture than anything else was anyone's guess. "I will base your next move off of what you know." "There's people with demons bound to them...and they can go nutso in a heartbeat. And the black-haired shadow girl is being chased by the blonde one..." Marin was...very low on the intelligence scale. Mina sighed. "What she said is the gist, but to put it better, our opponents were humans bound to 'symbiotes'. The symbiotes feed off the life energy of the humans in exchange for granting the humans power, but if the one we fought is any indication, not every one of these relationships is symbiotic, there seem to be an equal share of insane and sane humans with this...condition." Mina tilted her head. "The problem is, I can't use the shadows to follow her, she controls shadows, she could warp us. We're trying to figure out a way to get to them." "Hmmmm...." Saiph mused. "Troubling indeed. And tracking them would be difficult, it they do not use reiryoku. I take it, however, Marin is well versed in sensing yōki. If my hunch is correct, the girl you were following may be responsible for several of these kidnappings." "Maybe we should try and find a sane one so that we can find the insane ones easier. ...I'd go after the phoenix girl, since she's the closest thing we have to a sane one. Otherwise, we don't know who we can trust, or who we can't. It's gonna mess with our heads a bit, and we're gonna have to deal with it." Kisara was damn right about it. Marin made a supportive gesture. "...I think I can tune the demon energy to sense the phoenix. Then we can track her down...I hope. Bring her down here and get her to help!" "I believe I can be of assistance." Saiph stood up. "I will simply bring the benevolent symbiote child to us." "Do explain this, mister-know-it-all." Marin sighed, unimpressed. She wanted to smack him too badly. "The process is fairly simple." Saiph seemed surprised no one was cluing in, but he didn't focus on that. "You, Marin, will search for the yōki of the benevolent symbiote. There cannot be too many entities that use yōki in Japan, finding her shouldn't be difficult. I will tap into your own senses, and reverse the shadows, effectively summoning the girl to us." "That sounds like a plan then..." Marin still wanted to slap Saiph, but she restrained herself, not willing to make a scene. She closed her eyes, attempting to scout out the blonde-haired girl. A faint red aura became superimposed on her frame, pinpointing her location. "She's in Akihabara." Saiph placed a hand on her shoulder, borrowing her senses, before thrusting his free hand to the left, his own shadow extending and expanding, rising into the air as it took a human form. Karen was suddenly within their house, looking very confused. "W-wait a second! How the hell am I....where'd the shop go!?" She flashed a look at the group before her. "Did you guys do this!? You just lost me ¥4,800!" Mina sighed. "She has just as much energy as I expected...." Kisara took a few steps back. "...Huh. The hell is this.." She officially had no words for what had just happened. Karen did a double take. "Oh, it's you guys! The ones from the other day!" She was smiling, so, she seemed happy to see this lot. "I didn't expect to see you guys, not for awhile anyway!" Kisara rubbed her head. ":...Wait, a sec. ...Another tsundere...Just my luck..." "You guys seriously do owe me some money." Karen started ranting. "I mean, do I actually look like a person with a decent source of income? Not at all, I'm a shutin. I stand on street corners selling vegetable juice, and people refuse, so I invade their personal space like "It's gooooood, don't you want it? The lives of millions of vegetables were sacrificed so you could enjoy iiiiit." Sadly, that doesn't seem to garner me any real customers..." She seemed legitimately confused as to how such an insane description of vegetable juice wasn't a decent ad campaign. "...What. Not a bad proposal. I once heard the most metal description of eating a chicken burger. Why don't you throw in more 'hardcore' words? Like..." She became uncharacteristically hyper. "VEGETABLE JUICE IS THE THIRST RAPER! IT'S LIKE A GODDAMN MONSTER TRUCK IN YOUR GODDAMN FACE!!" She regained her usual quiet attitude. "...There you have it. ...Why are you all looking at me like that?" Mina sighed, and even Saiph looked a little perturbed by this behaviour. "Are your friends always so outlandish?" "You have no idea." Mina groaned. She turned to Karen. "What is your name anyway, we never did get it." "Karen." The girl grinned. "Karen Taisen." "Alright, Karen." Mina decided it was best to explain the situation to Karen, and did so as quickly as she could. Karen seemed to gather an understanding from it immediately. "Alright, so you think a symbiote would be responsible for killings like these?" Kisara nodded; confirming this. "Yeah. Well, it could be anyone really, but given what we're chasing after and the behaviour of that black-haired girl...it wouldn't surprise me, really." Karen actually looked fairly serious for a minute. "It is entirely possible." She took a seat in one of the chairs in the room — Saiph seemed to be about to make a remark, but thought better of it — and crossed her legs. "I can tell you what you need to know — from my own experiences, of course." "Karen...." "Let it be, Hōō." She was speaking to the voice in her head again, but to everyone in the vicinity, she simply looked mad. "You know as well as I do that the Nue at the very least is up to something." Marin shook her lightly. "So, you'll help us!?" Her eyes bloated up; big and bright like a dog's. "Please say yes!!!!" "How about one of you go on a date with me?" Karen had a rather smug look on her face for a moment, and her eyes obviously drifted to Marin's chest. "Why not you, you have a good rack." Then her eyes drifted to Mina. "What about you, sweetie? There's something about the combination of red eyes and black hair..." She seemed to drift off into her own imagination. Mina was obviously offput by this. "M-Marin, say something!" Marin's demon energy aura was set loose; swirling red energy surrounding her as she screamed at Karen; "Touch Mina again and I'll fry your wings, chicken girl!!" She really seemed like she was about to attack the Phoenix out of sheer rage and fury. Karen decided to ignore this, and Mina herself actually tried to calm Marin down, while Karen turned to Kisara. "What about you then? I don't mind flat chests either." Kisara inched back. "Wha-whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!?" She was embarrassed and dumbfounded at the same time. "...Don't ask such an out-of-place question!" Karen sighed. "I have no luck." She looked at Kisara and Mina again, and the longing was apparent in her eyes. "I'll probably ask one of you again later, when the feisty one isn't here." She obviously meant Marin. Marin snarled like a violent demon. "Touch Mina and I'll subtract your head from your shoulders, you bitch!" "Just.....someone explain to her what we need, I can't even talk to her anymore." Mina groaned. "Kisara, you do it." Explaining, "Well, there's a bunch of crazed criminials on the loose and they're causing, well, to put it lightly, a shitton of trouble. The old guy over there says that it's a bunch of you guys. So, since we can't get leads otherwise...we've decided to fight fire with fire. Pretty much it." "Why don't you let me explain?" Hōō's voice resounded in her head, and Karen frowned. "Alright....you know how uncomfortable that is." Her eyes seemed to blank for a minute, before her pupils contracted, and when she spoke again, her voice sounded slightly off. "I think it's best to leave it up to me to explain. It's a pleasure to meet you all formally. My name is Hōō." Kisara backed up. "...Ehhh!?" She turned to Marin. "You're a demon. Why don't you talk?" Marin took up Karen's hand. Or rather, the phoenix's hand. "Okay, I don't hate YOU. I hate the other one. But." She put on puppy-dog eyes. "Can you explain, pwease~?" Hōō seemed a bit surprised by this. "I suppose you're quite the two-faced one, aren't you?" She was obviously referring to how Marin had went from absolutely violent to something that needed a bit of a hug. Marin ashamedly admitted such a thing. "That's right. Now explain, I don't want you wasting my time. We have people to save; and every sixty seconds I think somebody dies. Can you really live with that? Can you?" Hōō dismissed this with a wave of her hand. "Human deaths do not typically concern me. For all your labeling of me as a "benevolent" symbiote, I simply happen to have a sense of justice most of my kind lack. I will save who I can; the rest are of no concern to me." "Understandable logic." Saiph seemed to agree with this way of thinking. Kisara asked, "So, it's all blue and orange for you? I guess I never will properly grasp your logic...The logic of demons is too hard to understand..." Said the woman who thought killing, murdering, and slaughtering were different things, and only the former was okay. "Anyway..." Hōō placed her arm on the armrest of the chair, resting her head against her hands and crossing her legs. In this sitting position, she resembled an Ojō more than anything else. Mina actually wondered if they were being looked down upon by this demon. "I suppose I should start at the beginning...every story has one, and ours is no different. Our species, technically we could be considered a sub-class of yōkai, manifested on another planet, different from Earth." She saw the confusion in the eyes of those present. "Yes, there are other planets that support life. Even other planets that support human life, though I can't believe this species actually managed to get up into the air, let alone up into the cosmos." "Hey!" Mina barked, but Hōō ignored her. "In fact, Mars itself seems to be hosting humans, among a slew of other species. Quite an interesting place, I was there before in another body...well, never trust a tout, let's just end that there. Anyway, my planet was destroyed, years ago actually, and the remainder of my species, which is surprisingly large, went into dormancy on the remaining chunks of debris, many of which made their way here, some which made their way to other planets." Marin was absolutely stunned. "...Haven't heard of that one before. That's...really interesting. So there's more planets than Earth...so you'd say there's different dimensions on those different planets?" "You don't quite understand the concept of dimensions." Hōō seemed resigned to the fact that a human would understand nothing. "We are in only one of the many dimensions that exist within this universe. If I had to explain it simply....dimensions are simply flipsides of each other. Where we are, right now, is referred to as the Living World. This is a dimension made of kishi, which collects into physical objects that can be seen and interacted with by the living and dead alike. Humans and half-demons for example, are all made of kishi. I believe your human textbooks refer to the base components of "kishi" as "atoms"." Hatoko, who was still sitting with everyone, seemed to be getting a tad confused by all of this. "On the flipside is the dimension known as "Other World", or the afterlife. Within this dimension, everything is made of a different material known as "reishi", which make up spiritual beings, spiritual constructs, and spiritual energy. In fact, all forms of energy are descended from spiritual energy in a way, even yōki. Within the dimension of Other World exists subsets of dimensions, the Dangai, which leads to the Seireitei, a place where Shinigami dwell, as well as Hell, which is the natural place for demons." Kisara nodded. "Got it. That's certainly, intriguing." To be fair, she was lying about understanding. "...But do go on. I'm all ears." "That's all you need to know about dimensions, I'm not a teacher." Hōō sounded snappish. "What you need to know now, is our goal. My speciess, the Symbiotes, as you refer to them — well it should be obvious by now. Our goal is simple. We want your bodies." She jabbed a finger at the group. "In fact, bodies like yours, naturally attuned to the energies of the world, make ideal hosts for a takeover." "Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?...then why are you in such peaceful harmony with the girl? This is really, really odd..." Marin's head hurt from all this explaining. "I told you, not every one of us is interested in domination." The girl shrugged. "Some of us simply want a life source and a comfortable body to rest inside until we die. Others want more. It's honestly 50-50 on our species." She sighed. "And one final detail. It's easier for our species to bond with your humans in your juvenile stage. The kidnapping of children? They're most likely being turned into Symbiotes as well." "...Well, shit. That means we have to hurry..." Kisara frowned. It seemed that no matter what, they always needed to rush somewhere. "Anyway, I'm going to give the reigns back over to Karen. Using this body is also so weird; blasted blobs hanging from my chest...then again, my last body was flatter." She sighed, closing her eyes as her own consciousness slipped back into the body and Karen took control again, shuddering. "I hate that...." She looked a bit unnerved. "It's a strange form of torture, like being trapped in your own head. You can experience everything the Symbiote does...but it's muffled, like it's from a distance. You're there, but you're not. It's not comfortable, existing on a mental level." Kisara was still miffed about the flat chest remark, but she let it go. "...Ouch." Those were, really, the only words she could express. "I suppose now..." Saiph proceeded back to his desk, now that "storytime" was over, and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "All that's left is to figure out our next plan of action...in this case, we're going to use the children as bait." Kisara was thrown off by Saiph's remark. "...Wait, seriously? You're gonna use children for BAIT? You have to be joking. That's just....messed up." "I'm the type who would push a child into a pool of sharks to make them learn to swim, Kisara." Saiph's voice was cold. "If children are what they are after, children are what we will use. If they get taken, it will be on your shoulders to save them. If they become converted, it will also be your fault." Mina gnashed her teeth for a moment. He was playing them — any failure would result in them, the actual active party in all of this, being held liable in one way or another. Marin wanted to smash Saiph's head in even more. It wasn't even possible to measure how much she hated him! "Look, buster. I'm about to turn you into paste, get your morals straight!" "If you have any objections, you do have three options." Saiph's eyes were ice as his tone was freezing. "One, you can simply go along with what I say if you want to save the remaining children. Two, you can go it alone, and watch yourself fail. Three, you can come at me, I shall beat you into the ground, and then we can refer to option one." Kisara couldn't believe that she was taking a leaf out of Marin's book. "You're a jackass, ya know that? Either way, we don't have much choice." "The only other place with an abundance of children at the moment would be the Senjōgahara Hospital." Saiph cast his eyes to a map for a moment. "It has a division that actually specialises in pediatrics. With the amount of children currently staying at the hospital for various treatments, it's the most likely place they'll strike next. You simply have to prevent them from taking any of the children, and then follow them if you make them flee. Easy enough?" "Yes." Marin agreed. She was going to liquify Saiph's organs after this. "May as well do it..." "Then go." END